The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) has a new statue… and it’s a mammoth!  A statue of a woolly mammoth was installed recently near the Natural History Building.   The statue was sculpted by Taylor Studios in Rantoul, Illinois.

You can find the press release here.  Thanks for the tip, Ben Riegler!

The next, and past, big thing: The great woolly mammoth is back. This time it’s visible to all near the University of Illinois Main Quad.

A new mammoth sculpture is rearing its head on the same ground where real mammoths wandered 30,000 years prior. That’s even older than the neighboring Natural History Building (NHB), built in 1892, from where the sculpture draws inspiration.

Why a mammoth?

Said Erika Lee, U of I Facilities & Services (F&S) interior designer and mammoth project manager: “Because of the nature of the academic activities that take place at NHB, there was interest in artwork that would depict and communicate in a realistic, naturalistic, or even abstract way, an aspect of the geological and biologic history of Illinois.

“In concept, a mammoth sculpture will draw attention to the natural history of Illinois.”